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村上春樹作品における〈 〉と〈性〉– 初期作品と阪神淡 大 地 以後の作品との比 を して / “Food” and “Sex” in Murakami Haruki’s literature

  • Makiko Yamasaki

Murakami’s early writings are littered with names of various foods and dishes. Often appearing in the context of descriptions of dates with girlfriends or lovers, they in turn become associated with sexual interactions. However, they are not the sorts of dishes one expects to see in a conventional Japanese household. They are almost invariably foreign dishes or mere accompaniments for drinks. Whilst the famines of wartime and postwar Japan did much to disrupt traditional household diets, Murakami’s predilection for foreign cuisine distances his writings even further from Japanese territory. This tendency is particularly evident in his early works.As has been well documented, following his eight-year sojourn abroad, the Great Hanshin Earthquake of January 1995, and the sarin gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo on the 20th of March that same year, Murakami’s perspective shifted from one of ‘detachment’ to one of ‘commitment’. However, an examination of food-related passages—and the sexual interactions that often follow—reveals a different picture. Despite Murakami’s shift to ‘commitment’, these scenes consistently depict a self-contained protagonist who makes no effort to allow women entry into his inner life. The protagonist is either unwilling or unable to comprehend the woman-as-other, a stance that I argue persists until the 2010’s. Accordingly, this paper will examine juxtapositions of food and sex from Murakami’s earliest works to Onna no inai otokotatchi (Men Without Women, 2014) and Kishidanchōgoroshi (Killing Commendatore, 2017).

  • Keywords:
  • food consumption,
  • sex,
  • evasion,
  • Murakami Haruki,
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Makiko Yamasaki

Nihon University, Japan

  1. 岩村暢子『〈現代家族〉の誕生 幻想系家族論の死』(勁草書房、2005年6月)
  2. 中村哲「若者の海外旅行の実態と意識に関する時系列比較2―2016年調査と2019年調査の比較―」(『玉川大学観光学部紀要』第6号, 2018年)5頁
  3. 吉永淑雄,瀬戸敦子(岐阜女子大学文化創造学部)「日本人の海外観光旅行の変容―海外旅行自由化以降に注目して―」(『岐阜女子大学紀要』第48号, 2019年2月)20頁
  4. 黒須宏志(JTB総合研究所フェロー)「海外渡航自由化50周年に向けて」 <https://www.tourism.jp/tourism-database/column/2014/02/overseas-travel-liberalization/>.
  5. 松本海「村上春樹『風の歌を聴け』に現れる〈食〉- 蔓延する「ビール」と、ものさしとしての「冷蔵庫」」(早稲田大学大学院紀要(65)2020年3月)
  6. 高橋丁未子『羊のレストラン―村上春樹の食卓』(CBSソニー出版、1986年7月)
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  • Publication Year: 2021
  • Pages: 59-75
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2021
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

村上春樹作品における〈 〉と〈性〉– 初期作品と阪神淡 大 地 以後の作品との比 を して / “Food” and “Sex” in Murakami Haruki’s literature

Authors

Makiko Yamasaki

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-506-6.07

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2021

Copyright Information

© 2021 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Food issues 食事

Book Subtitle

Interdisciplinary Studies on Food in Modern and Contemporary East Asia

Editors

Miriam Castorina, Diego Cucinelli

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

202

Publication Year

2021

Copyright Information

© 2021 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-506-6

ISBN Print

978-88-5518-505-9

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-5518-506-6

eISBN (epub)

978-88-5518-507-3

Series Title

Studi e saggi

Series ISSN

2704-6478

Series E-ISSN

2704-5919

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